Month: July 2015

By Jim Miller

Last summer about this time, I did a couple of pieces about the clear prospect that we are in the midst of the sixth extinction. Since then, the news has continued to get worse, with a recent study showing that the current rate of extinction is ample cause for alarm.

In “Vertebrate Biodiversity Losses Point to a Sixth Mass Extinction” published in Biodiversity and Conservation Malcolm McCallum summarizes recent findings succinctly when he writes that “the great speed with which vertebrate biodiversity is being decimated are comparable to the devastation of previous extinction events.”

More concretely, that means we have bid adieu to:

• the Golden Toad,
• the Baoji Dolphin,
• the Hawaiian Crow,

…

By Susan Taylor / San Diego Free Press

Friends—India and Pakistan had devastating heat waves in June. This makes my whine about too much heat in San Diego gardens a bit of a whine. Nonetheless, the heat in my La Mesa garden just about did my veggies and me in. I thought I was watering deeply only to discover that I was not.

San Diego County has many water districts, each of which has warned consumers about percentage of water reduction for their residential customers. Be sure you know how much water reduction is required (read mandatory) in your neighborhood.

We all waste more water inside and outside our homes than we realize and it really must stop. Here’s how to be water wise in the garden in July and probably August.

Editor: Since we were alerted to the Centennial of OB’s famous “Red House”, we asked fellow travelers who once lived there or lived in OB during the Seventies who had memories of the political house and its residents. Here is another “memory” of Red House, by Dickie.

By Dickie

I moved into Red House on March 1, 1973, one of 6 activists to take occupancy beginning a long stretch of time when Red House was identified as a center of the OB community movement.

We were community and antiwar activists and we had been living for a month across the street on Cape May in the little 4-in-a-row fourplex we called the “Barracks” because it was all activists living there.

Report on the OB CDC Meeting

By Lois Lane

The Ocean Beach CDC met Thursday, July 9, at the OB Rec center, as usual. The meeting was called to order by the President, Tom Perotti, with the primary topic being, the usual, the Veterans Plaza and the Children’s Play / Lifeguard Fitness

Plans for the Veterans Plaza has been submitted to the City of San Diego Development Services Department (DSD). This is called the “Ocean Beach Veterans Plaza-CDP”, an application for a Coastal Development Permit, submitted on 16 June.

Editor: As we approach the Centennial of the Red House, we asked friends who were in OB during the heady days of the Seventies for their memories. Our good friend, Bob, responded with the following:

By Bob

In the early Seventies I lived across the street at 5132 Cape May in the four-plex known as “The Barracks”. Our two bedroom apartment rented for $160 a month. My share was forty bucks to live a half block from the beach!

In those days, Red House, The Barracks, Little Red House (right on the beach at the end of the block) and several other apartments on the block housed probably 50 hardcore activists, progressive hippies, Lefty musicians, and fellow travelers, all dewy-eyed and hopeful at the possibility of changing America from the white bread blandness of the Fifties and early Sixties.

Ready for a sandy summer?

California state beach showers will be shut off to save water, beginning July 15th. State park officials announced the new policy as an effort to deal with the severe drought. The ban only applies to outdoor showers, not the indoor ones at state campsites.

City of San Diego outdoor beach showers – some call them ‘rinse stations’ – will continue – beaches like Ocean Beach. OB has such stations near the main lifeguard station and over at the new public restrooms on the beach near Dog Beach.

It’s estimated that each shower at the beach to rinse off uses 1.2 gallons of water. State officials hope to save up to 18 million gallons annually with the shut-offs.

Most of the beaches affected by the water-tightening rules are in Southern California.

In San Diego County, beaches affected by the change are:

This Saturday, July 11, is the celebration of the centennial anniversary of a house in OB. It’s not your ordinary 100-year-old house at the beach – for this is OB’s famous (some say ‘infamous’) “Red House”.

What is the “Red House” you ask?

The Red House is an old craftsman-type single-story house on Cape May Avenue that was the home to a bevy of radicals during the 1970s.

Painted red, the house was lived in by some of OB’s most notorious leftists and anti-Vietnam war activists. Beginning in 1972, the large, roomy house – a half block from the sand – at 5113 Cape May, became a type of leftwing movement and social center. Some of the leaders of San Diego’s anti-war movement lived there during that heady decade, as well as some grassroots activists who were instrumental in helping to cause a shift in local community politics.

Hit the link and sign the Petition that calls on the San Diego City Council to ban the nightly fireworks at SeaWorld.

From Petition:

SeaWorld is damaging the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of San Diegans on a nightly basis,every day for 3 months straight during the summer season alone. They are damaging the overall physical well-being of the citizens of San Diego who live within a 20 mile radius or larger.

The fireworks at SeaWorld constitute animal cruelty. Dogs, cats, and other companion animals don’t understand that the terrifying loud bangs are a celebration. Humane societies across North America report that after firework displays they are swamped with calls about lost dogs and cats. Dogs are brought to shelters with paws bloody from running or torn skin from tearing through a backyard wooden fence or, worse, crippled from being hit by a car.

Editor: In the interests of providing a platform and encouraging a debate and discussion over the alleged abuse of their tenants on Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Beach, the following is an unedited response by Torrey Pines Property Management, written by Andrew “Andy” Parashos, their Senior Vice President.

By Andy Parashos

In response to the mentioned article, please know that Torrey Pines Property Management has been successfully managing commercial and multi-family properties throughout Ocean Beach for over thirty years.

The property at Saratoga has been under our management since February of this year. The physical conditions leading to those described in the article existed long before our management, and were detailed in a property inspection report conducted during the purchase process. It was this information, along with new ownership’s desire to own a property they would be proud of, that lead to the repair, renovation and remodeling that is currently underway.

The Old OB Hippie Speaks Writes

Once in a while I have to emerge from my folded yoga position and comment on local happenings around the Village of OB.

Praise be to the OB Town Council – for they have led the way for a second year in a row with their “Mallow Out” campaign against the marshmallow wars of yesteryear. For the second July 4th in a row, there were hardly any marshmallows thrown down around the beach once the fireworks ended.

I did hear about a little good-natured throwing contest of marshmallows and firecrackers between people on the beach and some folks up in a balcony at the new condo complex at Saratoga Park.

But some said it couldn’t be done – but they did it. Some say it’s spoiling all the fun – but it was spoiling our environment. ,,,

It’s always interesting to get another perspective on one of San Diego’s most iconic events, the annual Comic-Con, which started yesterday, July 8th, and of course continues for days.

So, here’s a sampling of out-of-town media coverage of San Diego’s giant cultural bash:

COME INSIDE FOR MORE

A Treatise on Plastic Bags – Part 1

By Lois Lane

Walking home from Newport, I saw on my journey the nefarious “newsprint in plastic bags” on the sidewalk and in people’s yards. Were these the San Diego Union Tribune Ads, topic of a recent OB Town Council meeting? Closer inspection revealed them to be the Peninsula Beacon. What is it with these plastic bags?

Although the obvious and correct answer is “do not use them,” we all have plastic bags that come into our homes, one way or another. They may even be grocery bags or bread in a bag. If you order any product on-line, it is delivered in a plastic bag, and the contents of the plastic bag is in a plastic bag.

Recycling them is not as simple as it might be.